The present invention relates to a container being able to stand by itself as said container is erected from its flatly collapsed state to its three-dimensional state. The present invention particularly relates to such container enabling a quantity of content therein to be measured.
The container is well known which is able to stand by itself as it is erected from its flatly collapsed state to its three-dimensional state even before filled with the content. Such collapsible container is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Publication Gazettes Nos. 1995-12244 and 1995-28089 and Japanese Utility Model Application Disclosure Gazette No. 1991-75119.
A typical example of such containers of well known art will be described in reference with FIGS. 1 through 6 of the accompanying drawings.
The paper sheet-like blank is formed by an outside member (1) and an inner member (2) both being substantially rectangular and laminated with each other. The outside member (1) comprises shape-retainable paperboard and provided with a plurality of cutting edge-marked fold lines (a)xcx9c(f) and a punched opening (6). The inside member (2) is formed by flexible film, e.g., polyethylene film.
The paper sheet-like blank comprises a bottom forming section (3) destined to form a bottom of the container and side wall forming sections (4) contiguous to both sides of said bottom forming section (3) via the cutting edge-marked fold lines (b), (c).
The bottom forming section (3) includes a bottom plate (5) corresponding to the container bottom, substantially triangular punched openings (6) and is formed along transversely side edges with cutouts (7). The side wall forming sections (4) respectively comprise side walls (8) corresponding to the container side walls, side margins to paste up (9) contiguous to both side edges to the respective side walls (8) via the cutting edge-marked fold lines (d) and top margins to paste up (10) contiguous to said side walls (8) via the cutting edge-marked fold lines (f).
Erection of the container starts to fold the bottom forming section (3) outward along the cutting edge-marked fold line (a) bisecting the bottom forming section (3). Then side wall forming sections (4) are folded inward along the respective cutting edge-marked fold lines (b), (c). In this way, the blank presents a substantially W-shaped cross-section as seen in FIG. 2. Thereafter, the inner surface of the side margins to paste up (9) formed by a polyethylene layer and is welded to each other by heat-sealing as seen in FIG. 3. Thereupon, the side edge portions of the folded bottom plate (5) are also heat-sealed together with said side margins to paste up (9) since said side edge portions include cutouts (7).
In this step, the container is still in its collapsed state, i.e., in a relatively flat envelope-like state. Now the bottom forming section (3) is unfolded along the cutting edge-marked fold line (a) and thereby the container is three-dimensionally erected so that the container can stand by itself. FIG. 6 shows this state of the container.
Through a top opening, fluid content such as drink powder, instant coffee or curry roux is poured into the container and heat-sealed along the top margins to paste up (10) to obtain a relatively flat product, as shown in FIG. 4.
To unseal the product, the top margins to paste up (10) are cut off along the cutting edge-marked fold lines (f) and thereby the container top is opened as shown in FIG. 5. Then, the side margins to paste up (9), (9) are respectively gripped by fingers and pushed inward from the both sides. The envelope-like container is thereby folded along the respective cutting edge-marked fold lines (e) to four faces of the side wall. At the same time, the bottom plate (5) is flattened and the container takes a shape of square pillar which can stand by its self, as shown in FIG. 6.
It should be understood that this container could be manufactured and supplied without any content, i.e., as the container alone. The container is stored in its flatly collapsed state and, in actual use, three-dimensionally erected as the container being able to stand by itself.
Of the collapsible container as has been described above, the container provided at an upper predetermined position on the side wall (8) with a projection (k) serving as a measuring line is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Disclosure Gazette No. 1991-75119.
The container disclosed therein allows a user to determine whether the container has been filled with the content to a level indicated by said projection (k) or not. However, it is impossible for this container of prior art to measure an exact quantity of the content has been poured into the container.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a collapsible container of simplified construction facilitating the content of the container to be easily measured.
The object set forth above is achieved, according to the present invention, by an improvement of the collapsible measuring container constructed in a manner as will be described. The container comprises a shape-retainable and airtight paper sheet-like blank folded substantially in W-shape and having inner surface of its transversely opposite side edges bonded together so that the container may stand by itself.
The improvement according to the invention is characterized by that said container is provided in at least one side wall with a seen-through window and graduations used to measure a quantity of the content are printed on said window or in the vicinity thereof.
According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, said paper sheet-like blank comprises a laminate consisting of an outside member made of paperboard and an inside member made of substantially transparent film so that measurement of the content may be easily achieved merely by visual recognition and a desired shape of the container can be reliably ensured. Said inside member is preferably formed by laminated film of stretched polypropylene and polyethylene from the viewpoint of an airtightness of the container as well as the manufacturing cost.
According to another embodiment of the invention, said window is provided in the form of a vertically extending slot substantially in the middle of said one side wall of the container standing by itself.
In this way, a quantity of the content is in order to facilitate a quantity of the content to be easily measured without deterioration of the container""s shape-retainability. A lower end of said window is position to be slightly spaced above from a bottom of the container. Such arrangement contributes to the shape-retainability of the container.
After the content has been consumed until the surface of the content comes behind the lower edge of said window, it is no more possible to measure its quantity. To compensate such inconvenience, there may be provided auxiliary measuring means to measure a small quantity of the content remaining in the container. Any one of the auxiliaries measuring means as will be described below is effective in spite of relatively simplified construction thereof.
As one example of such means, graduations used to measure a small quantity of the content are printed on inner surface of the container below said lower end of the window. With this arrangement, even a small quantity of the content can be measured merely by looking into the inner surface of the container.
Another example, the container is provided on at least one face of the side wall with a seen-through small window extending upward obliquely from the vicinity of a container""s corner. In addition, graduations used to measure a small quantity of the content are printed on said small window or in the vicinity thereof. In this case, the container may be tilted so that the surface of the content may appear in the small window and even a small quantity may be measured.
Said graduations are printed on the outside member along transversely opposite side edges of said window or on the window itself of the inside member. In this way, a quantity of the content by visual recognition is further facilitated.
A shape-retainer is put around the outer surface of the container""s side wall so that said shape-retainer may come in tight contact with at least a part of said outer surface. In this way, lateral expansion of the container due to a weight of the content can be reliably avoided in order to ensure a precise measurement.